Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah
Fiery furnace (1266) by Toros Roslin.
Three Holy Children
Venerated inJudaism
Christianity
Islam
Major shrineTomb of Daniel, Susa
Feast16 December – Roman Rite
17 December – Byzantine Rite
Tuesday after fourth Sunday of Pentecost – Armenian Rite
January 24 - Mozarabic Rite[1]
AttributesThree men in the fiery furnace
Franz Joseph Hermann, "The Fiery Furnace; from the Book of Daniel, 3"; St. Pankratius, Wiggensbach, Germany. King Nebuchadnezzar (left) watches the three youths and the angelic figure in the furnace (right), while the king's gigantic statue towers behind them (centre).

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Hebrew names Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) are figures from chapter 3 of the biblical Book of Daniel. In the narrative, the three Jewish men are thrown into a fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon for refusing to bow to the king's image. The three are preserved from harm and the king sees four men walking in the flames, "the fourth ... like a son of God". They are first mentioned in Daniel 1, where alongside Daniel they are brought to Babylon to study Chaldean language and literature with a view to serving at the King's court, and their Hebrew names are replaced with Chaldean or Babylonian names.[2]

The first six chapters of Daniel are stories dating from the late Persian/early Hellenistic period, and Daniel's absence from the story of the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace suggests that it may originally have been independent.[3] It forms a pair with the story of Daniel in the lions' den, both making the point that the God of the Jews will deliver those who are faithful to him.[4]

  1. ^ "Calendarium Hispano".
  2. ^ Levine 2010, p. 1239-1241.
  3. ^ Levine 2010, p. 1233, 1239 footnote 3.1–7.
  4. ^ Seow 2003, p. 87.